Housing Career in Jakarta: Definition and Barriers

What is a housing career?

The term housing career refers to the sequence of housing choices and transitions of an individual or household throughout their lifetime. It encompasses the different stages and types of housing that a person lives in from year to year.

Typically, the stages go hand in hand with milestones in one's life and changes in socio-economic status. The main elements of a housing career include:

1. First home, which is when someone rents or buys their first home,
2. A house when you have a family, which is when you move to a bigger or more suitable house because you have a family or children,
3. A career-advancing home is when a person chooses a new home that is an upgrade of their previous home because they have progressed in their career and financial condition,
4. Downsizing, where a person chooses to move to a smaller home when their children have grown up and left home,
5. Retirement home, which is when a person chooses to live in retirement housing or housing with special facilities for the elderly.

Jakarta has not been able to provide an ecosystem that allows for a housing career.

Factors that prevent Jakarta from being able to provide a housing career include unaffordable housing prices, housing backlogs, limited financial policy intervention from the government, and lack of variety in housing types.

Why has Jakarta not been able to provide an ecosystem that allows the formation of a housingcareer?

Although a housing career is supposed to go hand in hand with milestones in one's life, it can be very challenging to have a housing career in Jakarta. As mentioned earlier, here are some of the factors that hinder a housing career in Jakarta, including:

1. Housing backlog

Jakarta is experiencing a backlog or shortage of decent housing at affordable prices. Data shows that the demand for housing in Jakarta far exceeds the available supply, especially for low- and middle-income people. This housing crisis is caused by several factors such as limited land in the city, high land prices and Jakarta's high population growth rate.

The housing backlog problem in Jakarta can be addressed by building Jakarta vertically by carrying out the concept of a compact city, like Tokyo for example. The government can work with the private sector to build Jakarta upwards so as to optimally utilize space, starting from government-owned land.

By addressing the housing backlog, the future of housing career in Jakarta has the potential to be better.

2. Limited financial policy intervention from the government

Financial policy interventions from the government to support access to decent housing in Jakarta are still limited. Housing subsidies are still insufficient and the requirements for obtaining a mortgage still make it difficult for some people to buy a house. In addition, mortgage interest rates are also quite high.

Government intervention in the form of financial policies that are suitable for home ownership schemes, such as a reduction in mortgage interest rates, can help make the housing career in Jakarta more feasible.

3. Lack of variety in housing types

In addition, an inhibiting factor for the housing career in Jakarta is the type of housing that is still not varied. For example, currently available housing is generally limited to flats or apartments with 1 to 3 rooms and landed houses with an area of 36 to 480 square meters. Until now, there is no type of housing that supports living together such as co-living or co-residence.

So, what do you think about the housing career in Jakarta? Hopefully with the right policies, Jakarta can provide an ecosystem that allows its citizens to have a housing career. Here's to us having a housing career in Jakarta!